100% with 3:47 left. Surprised to see that 95% knew about Denmark. I remember one time in LA I was in a cab, when some woman crashed her car into us, clearly not paying any attention. While we were waiting for a new cab, she asked us where we were from. We answered Denmark and after a couple of seconds of hesitation she said: 'Oh, that's in Germany, right?'
yes, thats how americans, in general, are... a bit below average.
a few years ago i worked for 6 months in NY, and one time was talking about traveling and looking at the office map, with an american co-worker, then he pointed to Greenland and said a never visited this bit of Canada...i was terribly shocked, but managed to say "friend....that's Greenland it belongs to Denmark", and to increase even more my shock face, he asked "who are they?" to what i answered "Friend i have a lot of work to do with you before getting back to Portugal"...now he knows about geography, and already visited, Denmark (3 or 4 times), the Foroe islands and "that bit of Canada" (Greenland, for not americans), and ended up marring with a Norwegian gril that he met on Denmark.
This guy was well educated guy with a PHD in mathemathics, so i was not expecting that.
Thank you, Kalbahamut. A run-in with one or two people in a country who don't know geography does not mean the remaining 300,000,000+ people are the same. Remember that about half the people of every country are below average in any given subject, which means that about half are above average in that subject. Apparently Blaugrana and Arn met some of the lower 49%.
Must be nice to live on a continent with sooooo many other countries that are EASILY accessible by train. Unlike us poor "below average" Americans who "don't know geography". We have all of Canada and Mexico. Instead of being snotty about how much geography you "know" maybe you should just shut it and be grateful you are from a place where travel is easy and relativity inexpensive.
dcher: exactly. They don't. Just like the average American doesn't know which amorphous blob Hungary is. These things are roughly analogous. On the other hand, while traveling about Europe, I've lost count of how many times Europeans from neighboring countries have not known where I was when I told them I was in Thessaloniki, or Sofia, or Skopje, or Odessa, or Iasi, or Minsk, or Kiev, or Riga, or Vilnius, or Malmo, or Krakow, or even St Petersburg. I can't imagine being in the United States and being in any city of comparable size and an American not knowing where I was.
I also get asked probably 10-15x a week where I drove here from. So far over the course of 2 years of receiving this question I've had exactly 2 Europeans know that Bahrain is a country and where it is.
ander: to be fair, MOST people are horrible at geography. Americans included. The average person just does not care. But Americans are no worse at geography than anyone else. In my experience they're even slightly better.
I think it would be hard to gather meaningful statistical evidence of any correlation between nationality and geographical knowledge. We'll all suffer confirmation bias. Even were I not sceptical of kalbahamut's 'thousands' of examples, which I am, the plural of 'anecdote' is still not 'data'.
One statistic I find interesting is the percentage of USA'ers (not a great term, but I'm no longer happy lumping them in with all other 'Americans') who have passports. According to https://goo.gl/aPCx7D, less than half.
But let's not be too quick to judge. Think of the astonishing range of adventure, culture and geography available to any citizen of the USA WITHOUT requiring a passport, and how far you can travel on an intra-national roadtrip. I suspect that many of those criticizing the septics for their ignorance never do anything so adventurous.
It's very easy right now to be critical of Americans. Trivial, in fact. Just make sure you don't end up being what you claim to despise.
You must have learnt yur spelling and gramir from us Mericans. Even us low average idiots can spelling "girl" propurly. Maybe even "I" and some gramir fixings.
Hey let some Americans speak for themselves! I am a proud American (and Indian) who has gone to the State Geography Bee 3 times (4th thru 6th) and I can defend myself saying that I am not like the rest of the Americans. It is true that the Geography Bee was created because of American geographical ignorance.
American is the most correct term because it's the term that most effectively conveys your intended meaning. Don't be ignorant.
Fewer than half of all Americans have a valid passport. This includes those whose passports have expired. So what? What does this have to do with having knowledge of geography?
I spent a year working in South Korea working alongside Brits, Kiwis, Canadians, etc. I would chat with in the break room. Every single day at work I would converse in English with young students on a range of subjects including geography. Average class size was 8-15 students. I taught five classes a day and the classes would change monthly.
I spent six years living and teaching in Saudi Arabia, 2 years working for a British company where I was the only American, working with many Brits, South Africans, Australians, Norwegians, Nigerians, Filipinos, Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Sudanese, Pakistanis, Indians, Germans, etc.
Every single work day for six years I would spend 4-8 hours a day engaged in conversation with students on a variety of subjects including geography. Classes schedules changed on a weekly basis. I can't calculate how many different students I interacted with. In my free time, living in a Saudi neighborhood in Riyadh, and later in a neighborhood full of mostly Asian and African expats in Bahrain, avoiding Western expat enclaves, most of the time being the only American around, I would routinely speak with people who would ask me where I was from or want to talk about where they were from.
I left Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 2014 and began driving. I've been traveling full time since then for almost 4 years. Never spending more than 3 months in the same place. I stay with people I meet through Couch Surfing, or I'll sleep at hostels full of other (mostly European) travelers. I tutored many different European/Turkish/Israeli students along the way.
I'd meet new people at hostels, through Couch Surfing, on OK Cupid or Tinder, through AirBNB, or just out and about. This has been my life every day since September 2014. Often moving locations every few days. Constantly meeting new people.
You still think I've not had hundreds if not thousands of personal experiences with this? Almost every *single* person I met while living as an expat and traveling the past 12 years has asked me where I was from. You think I haven't met 200 people since the beginning of 2007? The "hundreds if not thousands" of experiences claim I made was modest if anything. I've probably got tens of thousands of data points in my head that confirm that people outside of America are horrible at geography, moreso than Americans.
and, yes, I agree 100% we all suffer from confirmation bias. But as I pointed out above my original bias was believing in the bullpoop cliche that Americans are bad at geography. That's what I expected. But it's not so.
Europeans have a few dozen counties in the same area as one REGION of the US. Let's talk about European and Australian grasp of geography, shall we? We'll host visitors from various folks across the pond or Down Under, and ask them about their vacation plans. Them: "Well, we want to see Niagara Falls, Disney World, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Grand Canyon, and – oh, Alaska". Me: "Wow! How long will you be here?" Them: "A whole week!" Me: 😳
Hm. I'm Kiwi, and know all the countries of the World since I was eight. Can draw a map of it accurately too. So no offense to Americans, but right now you're behind New Zealand.
This is false. But a common chauvunistic and bigoted belief amongst some. Not all countries are equal.
Think of it this way. If all countries really are exactly equivalent... let's say person A can name every city in the country of Monaco, and person B can name every city in China. You are saying that these two people have a comparable amount of geographic knowledge.
And... even if it were true that having a comprehensive knowledge about US states were not equivalent to having a comprehensive knowledge about the continent of Europe (it's not true), that is actually immaterial as, amazingly, many Europeans really don't know much about other European countries, either. A Frenchman, for example, probably knows a good bit about France. And they might know some stuff about Germany and the UK and Belgium. But.... press them for information about Ukraine? Greece? Belarus? You'll get a lot of blank stares. On average.
I was in New York City once and people kept asking me where I was from. I told them I lived in Missouri. They looked puzzled so I started saying I lived a few hours south of St. Louis. One said, "That's somewhere in the middle, isn't it?" Finally I told one I lived sort of between St. Louis and Memphis. He said, "Memphis? Graceland? Elvis??? Yeah, I know where that is!" Then he looked at me suspiciously and said, "That's in Tennessee. You said you were from Missouri." I explained that Missouri connects to Tennessee. He still looked at me suspiciously as he walked away. So, no, not all Americans know geography beyond their own areas, either, except when it comes to the really important things like Elvis.
Yes, well, clearly unlike LA, this website is made up of intellectuals and people who seek to do something useful in their life. Like doing quizzes to pass the time! (-:
I got 100% with 3:49 left. Its a good quiz to try and perfect. Heres a tip, instead of typing the netherlands, just type holland; saves like 2 seconds.
Would be good if the country list was randomised, I had only three I couldn't think of, made it easy to complete when I could see what letter they would begin with. Great quiz though
2.05 left. I like that the map colours the countries as you name them, because maybe, if I do this quiz often enough, I'll be able to locate all the former Yugoslov countries! I can name them all fine, but finding them.....tricky.
Strictly by geographical reason, the quiz is accurate; although we usually include armenia, georgia, azerbaijan, cyprus (and maybe turkey) in the european maps, geographically none of them is located in european lands.
Most of Iceland (including the capital city) belongs geologically to the continent of North America. We should be excluded in this quiz just like Turkey and Cyprus.
Yes, but for historical, cultural, and political reasons it is in just about every sense considered European. Plus, when looking at a map it is obviously in Europe. Tectonic plates do not strictly define which continent a country is in.
Does everyone have to debate about Cyprus on every quiz here?? Please make a "Eurasia" quiz so that people can shut up about this!! Of course, somebody will probably want to put Cyprus in Africa in that case... LOL
I know! How about we make a quiz that doesn't have any questions, and then title it 'For Cyprus Debates', then anyone who wants to argue about Cyprus can go there.
Ah, Cyprus. One island, two ethnic divisions, three possible continents and four controllers (Cyprus, Northern Cyprus, UK and UN). Good job for making it so hard to understand you.
I would say Turkey is an Asian country, as a Norwegian. When you have countries like that, which can be difficult to decide, you have to look at more general factors, which I definitely would say is language and culture. Turkish is a lot more similar to langauges spoken on the Western border of Turkey, and those countries are in Asia. And Turkey is an Islamic country, which also is very West-Asian.
Yes, the Byzantine empire had a lot of roots from and influence in European history, but once Constantinople became Istanbul, it became more attuned to West-Asian culture.
yes it is culturally similar to countries in asia but this quiz is about geography and because some parts of turkey is in europe it should be included in the quiz maybe in parentheses just like cyprus.
Came here ~30 minutes ago and got about 60%. Six tries later, I finally got them all. I know, I know, shame on me, but at least I'm trying to get them down!
Aside: it's so weird now the EU to many people here is synonymous with Europe. It seems to me like the issue many people try to make with the USA being referred to as "America," except in this case it's actually a legitimate slight. Because while nobody is confused when you call the United States "America," referring to the EU as "Europe" to the exclusion of all non-EU countries (and sometimes, confusingly, to the exclusion of non-Schengen countries in the EU) is very confusing!
Wow, kalbahamut. You managed to disagree with a +1 comment. We've raised this debate before (the Ages and Eras Quiz, specifically) and the result was inconclusive to say the least, but nevertheless you seem to have walked away from the argument thinking you had won. You do that a lot.
The United Kingdom IS, in fact, located geographically in Europe. However, it may not be in the EU anymore, which means the European Union. That basically means it's not in a European alliance.
Guys come on! Why is everyone fighting if Cyprus, Turkey, the Caucuses, and Kazakhstan being in Europe or Asia. Everyone has good reasons for either side, but all of us know that we won't reach any consensus. Let's either agree to disagree or not argue at all. And also, why is this even a big deal in the first place? Think about it, we are fighting about a arbitrary line that doesn't even literally split the continent
When I had to test my daughter on the countries of Europe I forced myself to learn them all and locate them on the map. The map in my head still had Yugoslavia! I know them all now thanks to jetpunk!
If Cyprus is not considered part of Europe geographically, then why are Malta, United Kingdom, Ireland, Greenland and Iceland? The UK and Ireland and Malta are not geographically connected to Europe (and until this EURO Union thing, you seldom heard of them being lumped together with the European Mainland). As for Greenland, politically it may belong to Denmark but geographically it is closer to the American Continent (Canada to be exact). Iceland seems to be in a Non-man's land, equidistant from both continents.
Cyprus is closer to Asia than Europe; thus it makes sense for it to be included as part of Asia. Brits, in particular, have been referring to 'the Continent' (the European mainland) for centuries, which would be rather odd if they could just call it Europe, not being part of it as you claim. Greenland is, indeed, close to Canada...vast uninhabited swaths of Canadian islands and northern land. Meanwhile, it is also not too far from Europe, is part of Denmark, and has been considered part of Europe for hundreds of years. Malta and Ireland have similar reasons to be part of Europe - both are just a few hundred miles at most from the mainland and much further away from other continents. And Iceland is (under the definition that the northern reaches and distant islands of Canada shouldn't really count under the circumstances) much closer to Europe.
Honestly, no one really cares that you got X:XX. Being a quicker typist doesn't allow you to gloat to other people that you can. Yay, you can type the countries of Europe in under 5 minutes. Being able to accomplish this task does not make you any more special than anyone else. It just proves that you have a better ability to type and memorize (Don't get me started on cheating) than other people, or not really since anyone can do it in a few weeks or days and everyone brags about their special ability "to memorize countries" and can do anything with this such minor power. So when you are going to post about your time and percentage, just think, do others really care?
The arguments above for including Turkey don't mention that in all in other quizzes on Jetpunk where the issue is relevant, Turkey is included as a country in Europe. So, for consistency it should also be included here. The fact that most of it is in Asia is irrelevant - Russia is also mostly in Asia.
Huh? Turkey certainly isn't included in Europe on Jetpunk. Istanbul is quite often, because it is on the European side of that sound, but NOT Turkey as a whole.
Things were slow over the Labor Day weekend and QM thought, "What can I do to restart the endless arguments over Cyprus, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Narnia?"
Crimea is part of Ukraine. Legally, technically and politically. Crimea is recognized as part of Russia only by Russia and couple of other countries. Fix this.
Just a typing challenge, if you know them you know them, if you dont you dont. If you want typing challenges go to quizzes like type 1-100 in 30 seconds.
Took me 51 seconds this time - phewwwwww! (This only worked because 'Macedonia' is still accepted - I would have had to retype that otherwise :-)). Cool quiz!
United Kingdom left the EU. Please update this quiz. It's a great quiz, I've done it heaps, aced it a lot, but it would be nice for it to be up to date.
I see you've removed the star next to United Kingdom. I'm from the UK and a lot of us don't wan that anymore lol. Also, we haven't fully left the EU especially with the thing that's going on right now D:... Also, if you include Russia, then you definitely should include turkey because it is eurasian just like Russia (and Cyprus) so please consider that.
70% of Russia's population is in Europe whereas in Turkey only about 15% of the population lives in Europe. Cyprus is closer to the Middle East and Northern Africa than to Europe. (not counting the British Military bases)
that's not the way to show that Cyprus is in Asia. It's part of the EU. It is kinda like Trinidad and Tobago if you use that method you would say it would be in South America
Good day to everybody reading this comment. To solve all the continental borders drama, Imma tell you that this quiz, as many others, follows the divisions that JetPunk 'believes'. Cyrpus is considered Asian, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are not considered transcontinental as well as Russia and Greece. And of course, no Transnistria, no Abkhazia, no Artsakh and no South Ossetia. Hope to solve all the drama!
I don't care what anyone else says, Cyprus is European. Part of the EU, uses euros, culturally similar to Greece, and Trinidad and Tobago is closer to South America then North America, but no one considers it that. Cyprus may be geographically closer to Asia, but it is most definitely European
So, we can add JetPunk to the list of entities that recognise Crimea as part of Russia? Okay, now apart from Russia, JetPunks joins the position of Afghanistan, Armenia, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe on considering Crimea part of Russia. While the rest of +180 countries (with the exception of some neutral countries) recognise Crimea as part of Ukraine and condemn the annexation of Crimea by Russia. Simply great, JetPunk!
Why not accepting also the annexation of Austria, Sudetenland and Poland by Nazi Germany?
Most people include Turkey and Cyprus in Europe, and also Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are all transcontinental. Please could you include them?
a few years ago i worked for 6 months in NY, and one time was talking about traveling and looking at the office map, with an american co-worker, then he pointed to Greenland and said a never visited this bit of Canada...i was terribly shocked, but managed to say "friend....that's Greenland it belongs to Denmark", and to increase even more my shock face, he asked "who are they?" to what i answered "Friend i have a lot of work to do with you before getting back to Portugal"...now he knows about geography, and already visited, Denmark (3 or 4 times), the Foroe islands and "that bit of Canada" (Greenland, for not americans), and ended up marring with a Norwegian gril that he met on Denmark.
This guy was well educated guy with a PHD in mathemathics, so i was not expecting that.
I also get asked probably 10-15x a week where I drove here from. So far over the course of 2 years of receiving this question I've had exactly 2 Europeans know that Bahrain is a country and where it is.
One statistic I find interesting is the percentage of USA'ers (not a great term, but I'm no longer happy lumping them in with all other 'Americans') who have passports. According to https://goo.gl/aPCx7D, less than half.
But let's not be too quick to judge. Think of the astonishing range of adventure, culture and geography available to any citizen of the USA WITHOUT requiring a passport, and how far you can travel on an intra-national roadtrip. I suspect that many of those criticizing the septics for their ignorance never do anything so adventurous.
It's very easy right now to be critical of Americans. Trivial, in fact. Just make sure you don't end up being what you claim to despise.
Fewer than half of all Americans have a valid passport. This includes those whose passports have expired. So what? What does this have to do with having knowledge of geography?
I spent a year working in South Korea working alongside Brits, Kiwis, Canadians, etc. I would chat with in the break room. Every single day at work I would converse in English with young students on a range of subjects including geography. Average class size was 8-15 students. I taught five classes a day and the classes would change monthly.
I spent six years living and teaching in Saudi Arabia, 2 years working for a British company where I was the only American, working with many Brits, South Africans, Australians, Norwegians, Nigerians, Filipinos, Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Sudanese, Pakistanis, Indians, Germans, etc.
I left Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 2014 and began driving. I've been traveling full time since then for almost 4 years. Never spending more than 3 months in the same place. I stay with people I meet through Couch Surfing, or I'll sleep at hostels full of other (mostly European) travelers. I tutored many different European/Turkish/Israeli students along the way.
You still think I've not had hundreds if not thousands of personal experiences with this? Almost every *single* person I met while living as an expat and traveling the past 12 years has asked me where I was from. You think I haven't met 200 people since the beginning of 2007? The "hundreds if not thousands" of experiences claim I made was modest if anything. I've probably got tens of thousands of data points in my head that confirm that people outside of America are horrible at geography, moreso than Americans.
and, yes, I agree 100% we all suffer from confirmation bias. But as I pointed out above my original bias was believing in the bullpoop cliche that Americans are bad at geography. That's what I expected. But it's not so.
Think of it this way. If all countries really are exactly equivalent... let's say person A can name every city in the country of Monaco, and person B can name every city in China. You are saying that these two people have a comparable amount of geographic knowledge.
And... even if it were true that having a comprehensive knowledge about US states were not equivalent to having a comprehensive knowledge about the continent of Europe (it's not true), that is actually immaterial as, amazingly, many Europeans really don't know much about other European countries, either. A Frenchman, for example, probably knows a good bit about France. And they might know some stuff about Germany and the UK and Belgium. But.... press them for information about Ukraine? Greece? Belarus? You'll get a lot of blank stares. On average.
I was talking with a friend about europe and then some random guy starts talking about Tallinn,Riga and Vilnius(the capitals of the baltics),
And then he says this:"the USSR sure does have some great cities!"
And in my mind i think that hes been oblivious since literally the collapse of the USSR.
Venice.
VENICE!
Nope, that elusive last one was Vatican. Apologies to the 800-odd people I dishonoured...
Aside: it's so weird now the EU to many people here is synonymous with Europe. It seems to me like the issue many people try to make with the USA being referred to as "America," except in this case it's actually a legitimate slight. Because while nobody is confused when you call the United States "America," referring to the EU as "Europe" to the exclusion of all non-EU countries (and sometimes, confusingly, to the exclusion of non-Schengen countries in the EU) is very confusing!
is a Union of EUROPEAN States. By that measure, I believe
that it is wise for England to withdraw from the Union because
the UK is as much a part of Europe as Cyprus is.
Aesthus: -1. Your current total is -5,467 if you're keeping score.
I suck at geography even though I'm 11.
Thanks jetpunk!☺️
Cyprus is closer to Asia than Europe; thus it makes sense for it to be included as part of Asia. Brits, in particular, have been referring to 'the Continent' (the European mainland) for centuries, which would be rather odd if they could just call it Europe, not being part of it as you claim. Greenland is, indeed, close to Canada...vast uninhabited swaths of Canadian islands and northern land. Meanwhile, it is also not too far from Europe, is part of Denmark, and has been considered part of Europe for hundreds of years. Malta and Ireland have similar reasons to be part of Europe - both are just a few hundred miles at most from the mainland and much further away from other continents. And Iceland is (under the definition that the northern reaches and distant islands of Canada shouldn't really count under the circumstances) much closer to Europe.
yes im bragging
it took 6 Months to get Below 3:40!
I can die peacefully now
Also 45 with 3:40 remaining. Fun quiz!
i think the quiz time should be reduced to make it more of a challenge
Why not accepting also the annexation of Austria, Sudetenland and Poland by Nazi Germany?